Bring the Funny: Bumbershoot Announces 2012 Comedy Lineup

Bumbershoot will be upon us before you know it. Blink and it’ll be September, and three days of music, art, and comedy will arrive at the Seattle Center for Labor Day weekend. This year will include many outstanding musical performances. This year’s comedy offerings look to be equally enticing.

Some other highlights of this year’s comedy offerings will be three days of live podcasts. How Did This Get Made (featuring Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas and June Diane Raphael), and Doug Benson will be taping his podcast Doug Loves Movies all three days. Expect lots of cross-pollination with comedians and shows.

Northwest comedy will also be well-represented this year at Bumbershoot. The People’s Republic of Komedy’s Laff Hole will return to feature many Seattle comics, and Luke Burbank will be bringing Too Beautiful to Live to the festival. Jay Hollingsworth’s True Story Comedy Show will be a showcase where immediately following their acts Hollingsworth will probe the comics with questions to reveal what’s true and what’s fiction in their material.

From just to the north comes the Vancouver Comedyfest’s Illegal Aliens, a showcase curated by Will Davis the Creative Director of Comedyfest Vancouver. They caution the audience that they will reference maple syrup, pot, and Alex Trebek. (Best investigate these things to gain common ground with these foreign comics.)

How to See Comedy at Bumbershoot (from the press release)

All of Bumbershoot’s comedy performances are included as part of a general admission ticket, but the popularity of these programs and the intimate venues in which they are staged means shows will fill to capacity. To ensure patrons can make comedy part of their Bumbershoot experience, the Festival offers one free comedy pass per person, per day, guaranteeing admission to a comedy show of the patron’s choice. A limited quantity of free passes are available each festival day, on a first come, first served basis. When passes are gone, admission to comedy shows may still be available on stand-by. All the Comedy Pass details are available at bumbershoot.org/info/getting-in/#comedy-pass.